To explore the sediment interception capacity of plants and its relationship with the surface morphological traits of plants, we used laboratory simulations and off-site flume experiments to study the ability for sediment retention of six familiar species: Leucaena leucocephala (LL), Melia azedarach (MA), Dodonaea viscosa (DV), Coriaria sinica (CS), Heteropogon contortus (HC), and Eulaliopsis binata (EB) aver two growth periods in the dry-hot river valley of the Jinsha River. We analyzed the relationship between near-surface morphological traits of individuals of six species and their ability for sediment retention. Our study resulted in three main observations. (1) In the flume experiment, three-month seedlings and one-year old seedlings of the six species showed different abilities for sediment retention. In the three-month seedlings, the ability for sediment retention of CS was the highest, followed by MA and LL, whereas it was the lowest in HC and EB. However, in one-year old seedlings, the ability for sediment retention of CS was the highest, but the ability for sediment retention of HC and EB was better than those of MA and LL. Hence, the ability for sediment retention of the six species fluctuated between different growth periods. (2) The three-month old and one-year old seedlings of all six species showed different near-surface morphological traits. (3) The sediment mass was significantly and positively correlated with near-surface leaf areas, crown lengths, crown widths, stem dry matter densities at the intersection volume, and above-ground biomass, but significantly and negatively correlated with the angle between stem and ground, indicating that these latter are the main near-surface morphological traits able to affect sediment retention. In addition, the sediment mass was also correlated (positively and negatively) with the stem epidermal crack number, stem dry matter content, leaf dry matter content at the intersection volume, and dry mass per unit volume of the intersection volume, which could also reflect the ability of sediment retention. We conclude that in the areas where plant measures are used to control soil erosion and intercept sediment, the key, above-mentioned plant morphological factors should be taken into account in order to select the optimal plant species.